New York subway safest for women

New York City has the safest metro system for female travellers while Bogota's public transport is the least safe, a new survey suggests. New York City, where crime levels are reported to have dropped by 75 per cent in the last 25 years, was highlighted for its strong police presence and instalment of CCTV systems and emergency communication kiosks at stations where ticket booth clerks are not available, Crain's New York Business reports.

Tokyo came in second, followed by Beijing and London. The South Korean capital of Seoul rounded out the top five while Paris ranked 11th place. At the other end of the spectrum, Bogota, the Colombian capital, was found to provide the least safe public transport, followed by Mexico City, the Peruvian capital of Lima and Delhi, India. The survey of 6,555 women, including 10 experts in women’s rights, gender equality and urban planning in each city, was conducted by the Thomson Reuters Foundation in collaboration with the UK research group YouGov. It looked at public transport systems in 15 of the world’s largest capital cities and New York, which is the most populous city in the US. The participants were surveyed on their perceptions of safety at night, experiences of verbal and physical harassment, as well as levels of confidence in the public's and authorities’ willingness to help and investigate a report of an attack or other form of harassment. Six out of 10 women in Latin American cities, including Mexico City, reported experiencing physical harassment, such as being groped, on the metro, compared to three in 10 women in New York. Thirty four per cent of women in New York had been subjected to some form of verbal abuse. Nine out of 10 women in Seoul were not confident that fellow passengers would come to their aid if they were being harassed or attacked, while 85 per cent of women in Paris felt the same. Nearly half of the women surveyed in New York believed others would intervene if they encountered any trouble.

Cities with higher rates of violence against women tended to rank at the bottom end of the scale. Jakarta, Indonesia was fourth worst on perceived levels of safety, the report revealed. Polls were not taken in Cairo, Dhaka (Bangladesh), Kinshasa (the Democratic Republic of Congo), Tehran and Baghdad, which are among the world's largest capital cities, due to conflict or an inability to sample the required number of participants, the Thomson Reuters Foundation said. Several cities, including Tokyo, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Delhi, Cairo and Manila, have created women-only sections on public transport to help improve safety levels. London and other cities are also said to be considering women-only sections as well as introducing CCTV and better lighting on platforms, the Thomson Reuters Foundation told CNN. Gender and urban planning experts, however, have expressed concerns over single-sex sections on public transport. Julie Babinard, a senior transport specialist from the World Bank, described it as a “short-term fix" that will "only segregate by gender...instead of addressing more fundamental issues" CNN reports. "The emerging interest in several countries on women-only initiatives should be seen as an opportunity for improving security in cities but not as a silver bullet for dealing with gender-based violence in transportation and urban settings" Ms Babinard told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Mary Crass, head of policy at the International Transport Forum, a thinktank for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), said it was worrying that women were scared to use public transport in major cities and believed the latest survey highlights the need for more action, according to CNN.

"[Women] tend to be more reliant on public transport and on non-motorized means, particularly in low-income or middle-income countries, in emerging economies. "When there is not frequent, reliable, accessible transport, this can affect women and anyone's ability to access opportunity and notably employment in urban areas, which can make a big difference for women in particular," she said. See the full report by the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Cities with the world's most dangerous metro systems:

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New York subway safest for women

New York City has the safest metro system for female travellers while Bogota's public transport is the least safe, a new survey suggests. New York City, where crime levels are reported to have dropped...